CUBEx8

The CUBEx8 product started with a prototype made of a single base board with 64 LED sticks mounted to it. I showed this operational at the recent World Maker Faire. The LEDs are WS2812 style in the 3.5mm package size.

This turned out to be painful to build, proving very difficult to keep the LED sticks all straight.

The next revision replaced the 64 LED sticks with 8 LED level boards. Each level has 64 LEDs arranged like a an LED string. Here is a quick picture of a the completed pre-production prototype. I didn't have the pieces available in time to build it for the recent World Maker Faire, but was able to finish it recently. It is shown sitting horizontally on my desktop as opposed to the vertical orientation of my first prototype.

Here is the pre-production prototype with all the LEDs lit.

After building the pre-production prototype I decided I wasn't quite done yet. The base board had a section at the bottom meant to mount a controller board onto. Since I let the maker provide their own controller board, this section was made large enough to accommodate small boards like Teensy through larger boards like Raspberry Pi. It also make for a larger than necessary, and ultimately ugly, enclosure.

So, I redesigned the base board to eliminate all the holes. Here is the new board (right) next to the previous base (left).

I'm preparing to offer the cube in kit form, perhaps on Tindie and/or Amazon. I'll provide the LED boards preassembled, and the base board you snap the LED boards into -- yes, you literally snap the press-fit connectors into the base! I'm debating about either providing a power supply in the kit, or making that optional. Same with an enclosure.